"Christie's polemic underscores a great truth about the struggle against fascism: There is no middle ground. You may either resist fascism with all your might, or fall into the same abyss yourself."--Rain Taxi A detailed, scholarly study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), a group of twentieth-century militants dedicated to keeping Spain’s largest labor union, the CNT, on a revolutionary, anarcho-syndicalist path. Stuart Christie’s analysis covers the history of Spanish anarchism and the Spanish Civil War, and provides lessons relevant to today’s largely neutered labor movement. A gripping and informative tale! Stuart Christie is the co-founder of Anarchist Black Cross and Cienfuegos Press, and the author of Granny Made Me an Anarchist. He was imprisoned in 1964 for attempting to assassinate Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

From housing struggles to food politics, from poor people's movements to radical art projects, from the Right to the City Alliance to the US Social Forum, Uses of a Whirlwind explores the current composition of social movements in the United States. With equal emphasis placed on movement history and movement building, Whirlwind is a call to action for a new decade of organizing. Contributors include Robin DG Kelley, Grace Lee Boggs, Michael Hardt, Chris Carlsson, Take Back the Land, Domestic Workers United, the Starbucks Workers Union, Brian Tokar, Dorothy Kidd, and Ashanti Alston.Team Colors is a geographically dispersed militant research collective.

Decolonizing Anarchism looks at the history of South Asian struggles against colonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting lesser-known dissidents as well as iconic figures. This approach reveals an alternate narrative of decolonization, in which achieving a nation-state is not the objective. Maia Ramnath also studies the anarchist vision of alternate society, which closely echoes the concept of total decolonization on the political, economic, social, cultural, and psychological planes. This facilitates not only a reinterpretation of the history of anticolonialism, but insight into the meaning of anarchism itself. Maia Ramnath teaches at New York University and is a board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

From nineteenth-century newspaper publishers to the protesters in the Battle of Seattle” and the recent Greek uprising, anarchists have long been incited to action by the ideal of a free society of free individuals”a transformed world in which people and communities relate to each other intentionally and without hierarchy or domination. But what exactly would that look like, and how can we get there?Anarchism and Its Aspirations provides an accessible overview of the history and hopeful future of this vision for a better world. The book quickly brings even the uninitiated reader up to speed with a crash course on some of the most influential anarchists in history and their ideas about how we might achieve the transformation of society. From there, the book looks at how these principles have been put into practice by groups such as the Situationist International, social ecologists, Zapatistas, anti-globalization activists, and other directly democratic organizations and communities in their respective struggles against capitalism and state control.Laying out a clear introduction to some of the main ideas behind an often-misunderstood political philosophy, Anarchism and Its Aspirations helps us imagine the vast possibility of a truly free and democratic society.Cindy Milstein is an activist and educator from Vermont. She serves on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies, co-organizes the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, and is a collective member at Black Sheep Books. Her essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Realizing the Impossible, Confronting Capitalism, and Globalize LiberationX.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

The Arab Spring captivated the planet. Mass action overthrew Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. The revolutionary wave spread to the far corners of the Arab world, from Morocco to Bahrain. It seemed as if all the authoritarian states would finally be freed, even those of the Arabian Peninsula. People’s power had produced this wave, and continued to ride it out. In Libya, though, the new world order had different ideas. Social forces opposed to Muammar Qaddafi had begun to rebel, but they were weak. In came the French and the United States, with promises of glory. A deal followed with the Saudis, who then sent in their own forces to cut down the Bahraini revolution, and NATO began its assault, ushering in a Libyan Winter that cast its shadow over the Arab Spring. This brief, timely analysis situates the assault on Libya in the context of the winds of revolt that swept through the Middle East in the Spring of 2011. Vijay Prashad explores the recent history of the Qaddafi regime, the social forces who opposed him, and the role of the United Nations, NATO, and the rest of the world's superpowers in the bloody civil war that ensued. Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History, and professor and director of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books, including Karma of Brown Folk and, most recently, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Porter’s sensitive, learned, and accessible account is highly recommended for anyone wishing to acquire a deeper knowledge of the history of modern Algeria, as well as of the range of anarchist approaches, in both France and Algeria, to the pathways of Algerian politics before and since independence.” Mohammed Bamyeh, author of Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic HumanityEyes to the South makes a significant and valuable contribution to a small but growing literature analyzing the complex and problematic engagement of anarchists with decolonization in general, and Algeria in particular.” ?David Berry, author of A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917 to 1945 makes a significant and valuable contribution to a small but growing literature analyzing the complex and problematic engagement of anarchists with decolonization in general, and Algeria in particular.” David Berry, author of A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917 to 1945Eyes to the South explores important issues from the last six tumultuous decades of Algerian history, including French colonial rule, nationalist revolution, experiments in workers’ self-management, the rise of radical Islamist politics, an insurgent revival of traditional decentralist resistance and political structures, conflicts over cultural identity, women's emancipation, and major blowback” on the ex-colonial power itself. David Porter's nuanced examination of these issues helps to clarify Algeria’s current political, economic, and social conditions, and resonates with continuing conflicts and change in Africa and the Middle East more generally. At the same time, Eyes to the South describes and analyzes the observers themselvesthe various components of the French anarchist movementand helps to clarify and enrich the discussion of issues such as national liberation, violence, revolution, the role of religion, liberal democracy, worker self-management, and collaboration with statists in the broader anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements.

Monday, February 3, 2014

The first English translation of Guerin’s monumental anthology of anarchism, published here in one volume. It details a vast array of unpublished documents, letters, debates, manifestos, reports, impassioned calls-to-arms and reasoned analysis; the history, organization and practice of the movement—its theorists, advocates and activists; the great names and the obscure, towering legends and unsung heroes.This definitive anthology portrays anarchism as a sophisticated ideology whose nuances and complexities highlight the natural desire for freedom in all of us. The classical texts will re-establish anarchism as both an intellectual and practical force to be reckoned with. Includes writings by Emma Goldman, Kropotkin, Berkman, Bakunin, Proudhon, and Malatesta.Daniel Guerin was the author of Anarchism: From Theory to Practice.